5 Alternative Android Music Players To Listen To Your Tunes

Android devices from different manufacturers all have their own default Android music players. However, as I have learnt the default app does not always provide all the features I need and in some cases they do not read all my music files. Hence, I have tried a number of alternative apps which I will outline in this article.

1. PlayerPro

PlayerPro Music Player is a powerful music and video playing app for Android. The app has a wide variety of features including:

2. PowerAMP

PowerAMP is one of the most popular alternative music playing apps for Android users. It plays a wide variety of audio formats including, mp3, mp4/m4a (including alac), ogg, wma, flac, wav, ape, wv, and tta and it has an extensive feature set including:

10 band optimized graphical equalizer

crossfade and gapless playback (something not available in all the other players)

auto-download of missing album art

lock-screen and home-screen widgets

tag editor

visualiser

granular customisation options.

Many users like this player because it is powerful with a number of customisation options and the sound quality is impressive. However, I personally find the UI a little too cluttered.

3. Winamp

Winamp has been around on desktops since the 90s and now this veteran music playing app is available on Android. In addition to the standard features of all the music players such as artist information, playlist support, lock-screen and home-screen widgets, this app has a number of advanced features including:

streaming from desktop Winamp player

multi-language support

wireless & wired sync with the desktop Winamp app

free music downloads

This is a free app that has a lot of great features and wireless sync is an especially useful option if you already have Winamp on your computer. However, unless you already use the desktop version of Winamp, a lot of the apps advanced features may not be particularly useful.

4. MixZing

MixZing has all the features of the the other music apps, including a graphic equaliser, a tag editor, lock-screen and home-screen widgets, and playlist support. In addition, this app records the music you are listening to and provides you with relevant recommendations. Unfortunately, the app does not have a queuing feature and continuous feature which limits its usefulness.

5. Google Music

The Google Music player is not like the other apps I have mentioned in this list. It has all the standard features of the other players and can play most of the music files on your device, however it is a music streaming service which streams music uploaded to the Google Music Beta service. Hence, this app lacks a lot of the advanced features of some of the other apps, but if you have stored your music on the Google Music servers this app is essential to stream your songs to your Android device. Of course you should keep in mind that streaming requires an active data (3G or wifi) connection and if your connection is weak sound quality may suffer.

Conclusion

I find that PlayerPro strikes the best balance between simplicity, feature-set, and sound quality. Hence, it is my music playing app of choice. However, if you want easy music management and syncing I would recommend the Winamp Android app and desktop app combination. Lastly, do you have music stored on Google Music? Well in that case you should also install the Google Music app in addition to whichever other music playing app you choose to use.